The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-07-20
LIFE IN CAIRO.
Seductive Influences OF q So
journ in Egypt.
Daily Life and Picturesque Scenes in An
Oriental City.

A correspondent of tv Louisville
Courier. Journal thus scou> .!vcly de-
scribcs the sweetness of doing nothing in
modern Cairo: When one is fairy in
Egypt, floating softly on the undulating
tide of life in Cairo, one wonders WHY
ones time and adjcctives were wasted
on Europe; why people are ever con-
tented TO stop short of the desert.
Cairo, with it's strange history and
stranger streets, its mosques and
bazaars, is a charming study. All ma
tious meet here; all languages and all
customs obtain here, and of wonderful
costumes aud merchandise there is no
end. In this sweetest of winter climates
life seems too short to be in q hurry;
indeed, it is not worth living unless one
can loiter. The donkeys and cats alone
would make lifelong study; when they
lift up their voices either slngly
or in concert, the very
stars in heaven quake, anu the
moon turns pale and trembles. And
then there arc the people who own the
cats and who tide the donkeys-several
decades might be devoted to them. An
Egyptian woman is an object when on
foot; but when she mounts donkey
she is vision! To begin with, she rides
on both sides of the animal, and when
her curious black drapory bags out in
the wind, aud the donkey disappears,
save that his big cars and small legs
twinkle occasionally into view, sensa-
tions fade, words fail, and one feels the
need of rest and nourishmcnt. Dodging
uader cameIs; stepping over dogs and
children; pushing aside donkeys and
people, one tiads narrow alley leading
off the Mou ,kcc, and seeming to wind
its tortuous way in strange places. One
or two smaller alleys turn off; then be-
fore you rises a low archway. The
shadow is very deep; you arc evidently
under house, and Il keen wind, like
that in narrow mountain dcflc, nearly
takes your hat off, A wide gate stands
open; one moment takes you through,
past the group of guardian Arabs; you
turn a corner, and before you opens the
beautiful garden of the hote'.
. Sycamores and acacias bend and .droop
over the flower beds, roses and f,ur de
lys wave in the wind; great bamboos,
more than forty feet high, sway with a
long, slow motion; the red hibiscus
burns like fire IN the green gloom; the
shadowy palms whisper softly to the
fresh wind coming in from the desert;
the little wag-:ails hop about the path;
the doves mourn their hearts out in the
trce.tops; the cloullcss, rainlcss SKY
spreads blue above, and the sun comes
down between the leaves in thousand
golden streams. People who know how
to live in Egypt come here, and life goes
on as it should in the land of the lotus.
Excursions arc made easily; sights arc
seen intellgcntly; there is quiet talk and
peaceful thought here in the fragrant
garden. An artist paints with his
Arab and Fc!lah models grouped in the
sunshine on the piazza; further on an
Englishman sits translating an Arab
book; still further down the rine-1rapcd
vista some Arab sheiks are bargaining
with knowing E;yptologists for antiques
-scarabs and ugly little gols-strauge
cd rings and Coptic cmbroidcries.
Down in the garden the artists wife
and an American woman drum softly on
darabukkah, while on the path in front
of them Fellah girl kneels, trying
faithfully to teach them native song.
Strange and wild it is. with an unac-
countable measure that can only be
caught by ear, not learned by method.
Near by conjuror docs his marvellous
tricks, his mysterious call of "galla,
gala" now and then rising above the
barbaric song. An East Indian merchant,
with his rich stuffs spread over chairs and
benches, his gold and silver wares gilt
ting in the sunlight, chaffers persuasive
ly with q group of people, who try vain
ly 10 look sufficiently Indifferent to
make him lower his prices. The noon
day sun is blazing overhead; the birds
are still, and tie roses droop q little;
but sitting quietly in the shade it is not
so lad, and the desert wind coming over
the garden of a ucighboring sheik, has
q crisp, cool touch to it. Later the scene
dissolves, and the company 60 their
different ways, to meet again after din
ner under the broad fall of moonlight.
Then cigars and talk of the days doings,
stories of odd adventures. stories of "old